by
CGG Weekly, September 2, 2011


"We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot."
Abraham Lincoln


The book of Genesis records a number of promises God made to the patriarch Abraham and his descendants—particularly Israel. These promises, as we will see, point directly to modern-day Israel. The real issue here is God's faithfulness: Because He is faithful (I Corinthians 1:9), it is impossible for these promises not to be fulfilled. Once we identify how they have been fulfilled, we will know with absolute certainty who Abraham's physical descendants are—and that God is faithful to His Word. His promises and prophecies become, therefore, "search criteria" that will help us identify lost Israel today. Here are the principal promises God issued to Abraham:

Get out of your country, from your kindred and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12:1-3)

This promise at Abraham's calling is quite general. God, however, makes it more specific in a number of iterations. In these further rehearsals, God elaborates on this first promise.

Genesis 12:7 records the first of these: "To your descendants I will give this land." The land is the focus of this and other restatements of the promise. Because God promises to give it to Abraham and his descendants, the land becomes an inheritance.

In Genesis 13:14-15, God commits Himself to giving Abraham this land forever. The concept of eternity enters the picture early in God's relationship with the patriarch.

Genesis 13:16 emphasizes the concept of fruitfulness: "I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth." God promises to multiply Abraham's house greatly.

Genesis 15:18-21 provides a detailed delineation of the land God gave to Abraham. The territory extends from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia.

In Genesis 17:6, God repeats His promise of fruitfulness: "I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you." Note the plural forms of the words "nation" and "king."

Genesis 17:7 is an important iteration of God's earlier promise that Abraham "shall be a blessing": "I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you." God promises to establish an eternal covenant, not only with Abraham, but also with his descendants. Those descendants will be very precious to God. In fact, they are so close to God that the prophet Zechariah refers to them as the apple of God's eye (Zechariah 2:8). Historically, God and Israel are never very far apart.

In Genesis 17:8, God repeats His promise to give land to Abraham's descendants as an everlasting possession with an important addition. The possession of the land is connected to the covenant mentioned in verse 7, where God promises to be the God of Abraham's descendants. Ultimately, they will possess the land as a people worshipping the true God.

Genesis 22:16-18 records God's embellishment of the promise on the occasion of Abraham's "sacrifice" of his son Isaac. He promises to multiply Abraham and to give him control of strategic military and commercial positions, "gates," in his enemies' territories. As we will see, this promise denotes the geopolitical advantage that God later gave Abraham's descendants. God bases this promise on Abraham's obedience of the command to sacrifice his son, Isaac, a sacrifice God stopped just before the knife fell. Note, too, that this promise has the effect of an oath, in that God swears by Himself.

As the last recorded promise to Abraham, it is fitting that God should refer to His first promise, recorded in Genesis 12:1-3. God reminds Abraham of His promise that his seed would be a blessing to all nations. In Galatians 3:16, Paul makes it plain that this "Seed" is Christ. Jesus Christ, of the lineage of Abraham, blazed a trail by which all peoples could ultimately develop a relationship with the Father. Christ's work makes it possible for God to be our God, according to the promise of Genesis 17:7-8. The Messiah is indeed a blessing to all nations.

God restates a number of these promises to Abraham's son, Isaac, as well as to his grandson, Jacob (see Genesis 26:3-5; 28:13-14). Notice that they are the same promises that God earlier made to Abraham: land; a multitude of descendants spreading east, west, north, and south; and the "Seed," Jesus Christ, who would bless all nations. It is also extremely important to note that all the earth's families would be blessed "in you and in your seed" (our emphasis throughout). Those blessings were to come, not only as a result of Jacob's posterity or even as a result of Christ's work, but of something Jacob himself was to do.

Finally, in Genesis 35:11-12 God reiterates His promise to Abraham, as recorded in Genesis 17:5-6, that he would be a father of kings. He also tells Jacob that from him would descend not only a nation, but also a whole company of nations.

Hebrews 11:9 reports that it was "by faith [Abraham] sojourned in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise." These patriarchs of the future people of Israel received the same promises from God and lived in the same faith. Of them, and others after them as well, Hebrews 11:39 speaks eloquently: "And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise."

We see that in God's promises to the patriarchs are a number of "search criteria" describing Israel. Israelites will be eventually organized in one great

  • nation as well as in a multitude of other nations. The vast
  • masses of Israelites in these nations will enjoy plenty of
  • land and
  • prosperity. They will also come to occupy the
  • gates of their enemies.
  • Kings will descend from the patriarchs. These peoples will become a
  • blessing to all the nations of the planet.

As helpful as these search criteria are, some questions still remain. Do these factors describe Israel past, present, or future? Has God already fulfilled His promises in the context of ancient Israel? Is He fulfilling them today? Is their fulfillment yet future? In the next installment, we will look at the importance of the blessings that Isaac and Jacob gave to their descendants.